In my last post, I mentioned the importance of owning your content or owning your audience. And for my money, there’s no better way to own your content than posting it to your own blog.
But whenever I encourage artists and makers to blog, I often hear the same excuses.
“I’m a terrible writer.”
“I don’t have time to blog.”
“It takes me hours to write a blog post.”
So today, I thought I’d share my strategy for blogging as an artist or maker. It’s the strategy I’ve used on the vast majority of the over 1,200 blog posts I’ve written for my Megan Auman blog, and it’s the one I encourage the artists and makers in my online mentorship program to use.
The best part of this strategy is how simple it is.
In fact, if you’ve assumed that blogging requires writing long posts and lots of formatting, this is going to feel like cheating.
But I assure you, if you’re running a visual business (meaning you’re an artist, maker, or product designer), this is the way you should be blogging to promote your business.
Step 1: Start with an image.
The reason that most artists and makers get hung up on blogging is that they have to think they have to start with some grand idea or share some useful information in order to write a blog post. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Instead, I want you to start thinking of your blog as a container for sharing images. These could be images of your product in use (for instance, your jewelry being worn or your painting hanging in someone’s home) or behind the scenes of your studio or creative process.
These don’t have to be fancy images either. While I’ve shared plenty of images on my blog that have been shot with studio lights and my DSLR, I’m just as likely to share images of my jewelry on the street that I’ve snapped with my iPhone.
The best part is you’ve probably got plenty of images to choose from. Open the camera roll on your phone or mine the images you’ve shared to Instagram and simply pick one.
The one image rule isn’t hard and fast, so if you’ve got multiple related images, you can certainly share them in a single post. But if having to edit and post multiple images overwhelms you, simply pick one great image and make it the focus of your post.
Step 2: Write a post title with keywords.
I know that the idea of keywords is another aspect of blogging that trips up a lot of makers and artists, and honestly, I wasn’t sure I wanted to include that language in this step.
But at the end of the day, putting some keywords into the headline of your blog post is the best way to ensure your blog posts get found in search engines and on Pinterest.
So I’m going to let you in on a little secret when it comes to coming up with a post title with some good keywords.
Describe the image.
That’s it.
Rather than going for something clever, simply tell people what’s in the image. If the picture you’ve chosen is of you wearing your rings while sipping an iced latte on your Florida vacation, use those words in your post title.
If the picture shows you wearing your new statement necklace with a navy blue t-shirt, make your post title “my new statement necklace with a navy blue t-shirt.”
Seriously. Don’t overthink this one. It honestly doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that.
Step 3: Write a sentence or two about the image.
The beauty of blogging with images first is that you don’t have to be a great writer in order to generate a lot of blog content.
Actually, you barely have to be a writer at all.
The text in your blog doesn’t have to be any longer than a caption you’d share on Instagram. And if you’re posting an image you originally shared on Insta, you can even steal the caption you’ve already used.
If you’re unsure of what to say, think about how you’d share the image with a friend. I’ll often start with the phrase “I’m so excited about…” as a way to get me going.
And if nothing else comes to mind, talk about the weather! It’s a sure fire way to give you something quick and breezy to say. (And if you really can’t think of something to say, just skip right on down to Step 4!)
Step 4: Include a call to action.
The beauty of blogging is that you can include links with every post. So make sure you do.
If you shared an image of something available in your online store, you can literally include the text “Click here to shop this item in my online store.” as a clickable link.
If you’re using your blog to tease out new designs or a new collection, your call to action should be to encourage them to join your email list so they can be the first to know when it’s available. (You can include a link to your sign-up form or even embed it directly into the bottom of a blog post.)
While you don’t need a call to action in every post, it’s important to remember that your blog is there to help market your work, so if you can, encourage your readers to take action in order to get them one step closer to making a purchase.
Step 5: Hit publish.
Yes, that’s really all there is to this process.
And once you get the hang of it, you should be able to create and publish a blog post in under 15 minutes. (No longer than it takes you to post to Instagram.)
Of course, one blog post isn’t going to instantly catapult your business into fame, stardom, and crazy sales.
That’s why the final step of this process is to rinse and repeat.
When it comes to blogging, consistency is key. But by using this simple system, you should easily be able to commit to a couple of blog posts a week, and the impact of those over time can be huge for your business.
Not to mention the fact that you’ll now have an archive or your images (and your creative business) stored in a place that you have control over!
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If you read my new ebook, you know I’m all about the mental shifts that help me get more done in my creative business. And so it shouldn’t surprise you that I developed this strategy when I started thinking of my blog not as a place where I had to write a ton, but as a container for the images I wanted to share to Pinterest. If you want to learn how to use Pinterest to get more eyeballs on your work, whether that’s your blog posts or your online shop, registration is open now for my completely revamped class, Practical Pinning.